This Welsh Government race equality action plan has come at a pivotal time, and I'm so pleased to hear our Minister say today that it's all about ultimately creating an anti-racist Wales. I just want to say as a new Member of the Senedd, as I haven't been able to contribute in the previous debates, in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd that sent shockwaves around the globe, I am so incredibly proud of my own community. We held protests in Newbridge Fields in Bridgend and also at Rest Bay in Porthcawl, and they were mostly organised by young people—like I said, incredibly proud—wanting to tackle the deep-rooted racial inequality in our society.

So, there is no denying why the race equality plan is needed. A study conducted in 2019 revealed that 70 per cent of black and minority ethnicity people had experienced racial harassment in the workplace, and, what's more, 40 per cent of those employees had reported cases to their employers and hadn't been taken seriously or just been simply ignored. In schools, the Show Racism the Red Card annual report found that 77 per cent of pupils in Wales had seen racially motivated offences, and this is echoed in the Race Alliance Wales 'Show Us You Care' report, which included lots of testimonies from people who had experienced racism, and also the recent Voice.Wales article had a student, Ben, who was quoted as saying that he never reported incidents in school of racism because he didn't think he'd be believed or taken seriously, and he said that,

'By age 15 I was suicidal and violent' because he had been treated with such contempt at school for no reason other than the colour of his skin. It highlights that we cannot simply put pressure on the individual to act, when the foundations, system and existing policies cannot protect them. We must make sure that our black, Asian and minority ethnicity communities are confident to attend work, education or any other part of society, free from racial harassment, and if racism does occur, in whatever form, it is treated with the severity that it deserves.

In my own constituency of Bridgend, and Porthcawl, I am pleased that the local authority had committed to actively ending discrimination, advancing equality of opportunities, and fostering positive relations between communities. And that's why I'm just very pleased to see today that the Minister for Social Justice had consulted a diverse range of communities in producing the race equality action plan, including EYST, Wales race forum members, Wales TUC, and others who have made it clear that we need more than to not be racist. We must focus on being anti-racist. We must ensure that those voices are uplifted within our communities and their experiences are heard, so again I just want to add two voices to that today. Organisers of Black Lives Matter Bridgend, Anna and Olivia, have been working so hard to make positive change in our community, and they have said, 'We must ensure that policy enables professionals to protect individuals from racial discrimination and continue to listen to those facing inequalities in schools and at work.' We now owe it to those people who have given so much time and commitment to sharing their lived experiences the opportunity to see this reflected in policy and Welsh Government.